Flames Fall To Golden Knights

The Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period but the visiting Vegas Golden Knights would score the next four en route to victory Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome

Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman scored for Calgary, which is now 1-3 on the season.

Vegas goalie Adin Hill allowed both Calgary goals but did not return after the first intermission, Akira Schmid came on in relief and stopped all 19 shots he faced.

Dustin Wolf got the start for Calgary, finishing with 26 saves.

Backlund opened the scoring at 7:32, getting the puck along the halfboards, cutting back hard towards the net and putting the puck to MacKenzie Weegar up high who dished back and the captain snapped a shot top cheddar over a diving Hill.

The homeside made it two-zip when Coleman scored unassisted at 12:10.

While youngster Sam Honzek didn’t get a point on the goal, he made the play happen with a hit down low on Ivan Barbashev who threw the puck away right to Coleman, who then beat Hill with a quick shot.

Hill took a shot off the head from Matt Coronato in the first, losing his mask before making a stop on a Rasmus Andersson blast, slidding out of his crease and staying down for some time before playing out the period.

Schmid 12 stops in the middle stanza after coming in.

He had a big save on Connor Zary on a 2-on-1, the Flames forward holding it and snapping it looking for farside under Schmid’s arm. He also denied Coleman, who took a nifty feed from Backlund.

Then with less than 20 seconds to go in the period, he robbed Nazem Kadri’s one-timer from the slot.

As the last few ticks wound down, Andersson had a great look but put the puck off the side of net as time expired.

The only goal of the period, though, came from Vegas after a turnover in the Flames zone at exactly the midway point of the second, Wolf stopping Jack Eichel’s initial shot on a 2-on-1 rush but the Golden Knights forward poking in his rebound behind the Flames netminder.

Wolf made 11 saves in the frame, including four on Vegas’ second powerplay of the game when he stood tall.

Yegor Sharangovich was denied with a backhand out front early in the third with two Golden Knights on him, before Wolf made a stellar save on Mark Stone who tried to wrap the puck around his pad on the doorstep.

Kaeden Korczak would tied the game 4:11 into the third when he got a loose puck as he skated in from the point and put it farside, and Eichel would score his second just over two minutes later off a rush, skating wide around Daniil Miromanov and driving the net, sliding the puck home.

Tomas Hertl would add an empty-netter eith 6.4 second left to play.

The Lineup:

FORWARDS

Matvei Gridin - Nazem Kadri - Matt Coronato

Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Yegor Sharangovich

Sam Honzek - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

Ryan Lomberg - Connor Zary - Adam Klapka

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Joel Hanley - Zayne Parekh

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf - starter

Devin Cooley

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 29, VGK 30

Powerplay: CGY 0-1, VGK 0-2

Faceoffs: CGY 43.1%, VGK 56.9%

Hits: CGY 23, VGK 26

Blocked shots: CGY 18, VGK 11

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 22, VGK 19

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 9, VGK 8

Up Next:

The Flames fly out to Salt Lake City where they will face the Utah Mammoth Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet360). They face the Golden Knights in Vegas on Saturday night at 8 p.m. on CBC/Sportsnet, before returning home to the Scotiabank Saddledome to host the Winnipeg Jets on Oct 20 at 7:30 p.m. CLICK FOR TICKETS